Football: Mourinho seeks derby boost against Fulham

Chelsea's Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho

LONDON - Jose Mourinho finds himself in the unexpected position of attempting to turn around Chelsea's alarming early dip when Fulham make the short trip to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Successive defeats by Everton and Basel have prompted some soul-searching at Chelsea with Mourinho claiming his squad's lack of experience has been exposed.

Having started the campaign positively with the hard-earned point at Manchester United following on from victories over Hull and Aston Villa, Chelsea have since lost the European Super Cup on penalties to Bayern Munich before the latest painful defeats.

Without a win in four games and with goals proving hard to come by, the meeting with west London neighbours Fulham has taken on more significance, particularly given the Cottagers' record of have drawn on their last three visits to Stamford Bridge.

The loss to Basel was particularly frustrating, ending a run of 29 home Champions League games without defeat and coming after Chelsea had secured a first-half lead.

Blues centre back Gary Cahill acknowledged there must be improvements.

"You can always do better, you can always analyse goals," said Cahill. "The back four, goalkeepers, individuals. We'll have a look at that.

"It's not a disaster, but it's not ideal. A club like this wants to win the majority of games it plays. That's the expectation. It's a blow but it's not the be all and end all.

"We need to win our next game now, as simple as that. The manager will stress that. We've got the squad to do it, we need to go on now and get back to winning ways on Saturday."

The defender added: "It's two disappointing results. We lost at Everton and someone was saying it was the worst start in however many years but before then we were bang on track.